NCAA Basketball: Power rankings of all teams (363-1) for 2022-23 season

100. Georgia Bulldogs- Last Season Ranking: 119

Conference: SEC

Georgia has been one of the worst power five teams for a while and the Tom Crean era is mercifully over. Crean was a great recruiter and had no problem getting high-quality talent to the Bulldogs. The problem was that he didn’t win, was a bad in-game coach, and often threw his players under the bus. It didn’t work out and hopefully, Georgia is going to be better with their new coach. Head coach Mike White, who was most recently at Florida, is the new head coach for the Bulldogs. White has averaged 22 wins a year as a head coach at the Division 1 level. If he can do that in Georgia, they will give him a statue outside the building.

The Bulldogs have a lot of talent that they acquired via the transfer portal. Any improvement is going to be something to build from. Georgia won 6 games last year and 1 game in the SEC. Under Crean, the Bulldogs were terrible on the defensive end of the floor, White is not going to let that happen his teams will play defense and he will make sure Georgia is competitive quickly.

Justin Hill put himself on the map with a fantastic season at Longwood. Longwood was great on the defensive end a season ago and Hill was right in the middle of that. Hill was also one of the best point guards in the country a season ago and he is going to take that to Athens where is going to lead the revamped Georgia team. Hill can score but his best asset is going to be his ability to pass the ball to get his teammates involved. He will score when he needs to, but if he puts up 4 assists per game again Georgia will be much improved.

99. Loyola-Chicago Ramblers- Last Season Ranking: 33

Conference: Atlantic 10

The Ramblers are moving on from the Missouri Valley and heading to a more competitive conference. Loyola-Chicago is off to the Atlantic 10 with the hopes of replicating the same amount of success that the Ramblers displayed in their final seasons in the Missouri Valley. Last season was a new coach in Drew Valentine but the same success especially on the defensive end for Loyola-Chicago.

Coach Valentine was a member of former coach Porter Moser’s staff and was the defensive coordinator on those teams. He has been responsible for the smothering defense that the Ramblers have become known for. Valentine may be the youngest head coach in Division 1, he knows what he is doing and is going to continue to win a lot of games at Loyola.

Defense has been the thing for Loyola, but the reason they win so much is their defense coupled with their high field goal percentages. They have consistently been one of the nations leaders in field goal percentage. That is impressive considering that almost half of the Ramblers shots come from deep. Don’t be fooled the move the Atlantic 10 means that Loyola is suddenly going to fade. The Ramblers have staying power and they are going to factor into the top of that league and push for an NCAA tournament.

Saint Thomas is a player I have watched a lot since his High School days. He played in my home state of Nebraska and was teammates with Gonzaga Bulldog guard Hunter Sallis. Thomas has enormous potential, he is extremely athletic, can create his own shots from anywhere on the floor, is a good three point shooter, and can defend every position. The guard only received about 6 minutes a game last year and only took 40 shots.

I know it is a small sample size, but his efficiency numbers were fantastic and wont falter much with the increased minutes. Thomas is going to jump into the starting lineup this year and is not going to disappoint. Watch for the huge breakout year for the sophomore.

98. Davidson Wildcats-Last Season Ranking: 96

Conference: Atlantic 10

It’s a new era for the Davidson basketball program. Bob McKillop had been the head coach for the Wildcats for as long as I have been watching basketball. McKillop was the coach at Davidson since the 1989-1990 season and has built the Davidson program up to one of the best mid majors in the country, as well as one of the premier programs in the Atlantic 10. The Wildcats ended last season with a heartbreaker to Michigan State in the NCAA tournament.

Since the former legendary coach was able to pick his replacement, he picked his son Matt McKillop. The younger McKillop was a star player at Davidson in his days and has been on the bench for the last 14 seasons next to his father. Davidson isn’t going to change much; the Wildcats will still run an efficient offense and load the team up with shooters on the perimeter and will still finish in the top tier of the league.

Foster Loyer had a successful first season at Davidson. He was able to step right in and claim the starting point guard role. In his first season as a Wildcat the point guard shot 44% from the three, and 45% overall. He is showing he can be an elite scorer in the Atlantic 10 and should be an easy choice for first team all conference.

97. Florida Atlantic Owls- Last Season Ranking: 191

Conference: Conference USA

Florida Atlantic is going to be one of those teams that everyone should watch closely this year. They are a team that is going to take off if they all stay together as they get more experience, they may be a tournament team multiple years in a row. Four out of the six top contributors on the team were Freshmen, all those players returned. Head coach Dusty May is one of the best offensive minds in basketball and he always has his guys ready to play and puts them in a position to succeed.

The other factor in the Owls taking off is their head coach, as he continues to build up this program, he is going to be in the running for a lot of Power jobs. Florida Atlantic shoots a high percentage from the field and they do a good number of threes as well. So, they are another mid major school who plays quick and hoists threes but can make a lot of them. On the defensive end the Owls run everyone off the three point line and rarely allow any rebounds. Florida Atlantic is the ultimate sleeper team in the Conference USA because they were so young last year, and those talented freshmen are now sophomores.

Alijah Martin was an all conference USA player a season ago. He shot 55% from two and 40% from deep. The guard rebounds well, averages over a steal a game. He is a budding star in the Conference USA and the Owls are going to go far for as long as Martin is leading this team.

96. Utah State Aggies- Last Season Ranking: 106

Conference: Mountain West

There was not much debate last season with Utah State heading into the season. The Aggies were a team that was supposed to finish at the top of the Mountain West a season ago. They had the returning roster, including one of the preseason favorites for player of the year. Utah State had the coach as they were set to transition from Craig Smith to Ryan Odom. Those two coaches are two of the better coaches in the college game.

The reality is that the Aggies had the same struggles that any team breaking in a new coach and a lot of new pieces would. Utah State never posed a real threat in the conference and had numerous head scratching losses, like the one to Air Force right after Christmas. This season the expectations are lowered a little bit, but coach Odom is not going to sit and accept the rebuild he wants to win now.

The Aggies were great on the offensive end last year especially around the rim as they shot one of the highest percentages in the country inside the three point line. Utah State lost a ton of production in the front court so the Aggies went out and got some quality transfers to help fix that. The Aggies are still going to be efficient on the offensive end as coach Odom replaced his stars with some other efficient offensive stars. Utah State finishes in the middle of the Mountain West.

Taylor Funk plans to spend his sixth year at Utah State and Funk was a star at Saint Joseph’s before he decided to transfer. The forward has scored over 1,400 points in his career. Funk shot over 42% from the field, 36% from three and over 80% from the line. The star is going to get his touches in this offense and will be the leading scorer for the Aggies.

95. Liberty Flames- Last Season Ranking: 110

Conference: Atlantic Sun

During the Ritchie McKay era the Flames have turned into a dynasty in the Atlantic Sun. McKay has turned Liberty into a perennial power in Division 1 basketball.  The Flames are not just a power in the Atlantic Sun, but they are also one who is starting to find it very hard to get quality non-conference games against the major power schools. Liberty is a team who can beat a lot of power five schools.

The Flames played a lot of power schools last year and kept most of them close and did beat Missouri. The Flames head into this season as the favorite in the Atlantic Sun and it would be a huge upset if Liberty did not win the league and head back to the tournament. They are aggressive defensively and force their opponents to take bad shots and on the offensive end the Flames take and make a ton of threes. They can beat everyone on their schedule this year.

Darius McGhee is the preseason favorite for the Atlantic Sun player of the year. McGhee is 5’9” and one of the truly elite scorers in the game. It is going to be a battle between McGhee and Davis from Detroit for the scoring title this year. The guard took 19 shots per game last year and shot 46% from the floor.

Some volume shooters don’t have great shooting percentages but not McGhee, he is an incredibly efficient scorer for the volume he takes. Liberty is going to run the same offense of give the ball to the star and watch out. He scored 25 a game last year and no one else on the roster averaged double figures.

94. DePaul Blue Demons- Last Season Ranking: 97

Conference: Big East

DePaul hired Tony Stubblefield as their head coach at the start of last year and he was tasked with rebuilding the program back to making NCAA tournaments and finishing in the middle of the Big East pack. There is no one who believes Stubblefield cannot do it. The Blue Demons are in a recruiting hotbed, Chicago Illinois, and the state of Illinois in general has enough talent to go around that all of the major programs in that state should get their pick of the players they want. DePaul needs to get back to being a competitive team. It will make the Big East and college basketball better in general.

This year coach Stubblefield has brought in a good recruiting class highlighted by a top 50 player in Zion Cruz. In addition to the freshman, the Blue Demons also have a good transfer class to work with. Coach Stubblefield has a team that can do a lot of things. The Big East is loaded so can the Blue Demons win enough games to finish in the middle of the pack? They will be better and closer to .500 in the league but that will likely still be the bottom tier.

Umoja Gibson is on his third school after starting his career at North Texas, then transferring to Oklahoma and now to DePaul.  Gibson is a premier scorer and defender and is going to lead the Blue Demons in scoring and will provide lockdown defense on the perimeter. Gibson is a career 40% three point shooter and is going to score in double digits most every game. He is better suited as an off guard and that is where coach Stubblefield will play him.

93. UCF Knights- Last Season Ranking: 61

Conference: American Athletic

In the six seasons that Johnny Dawkins has been the coach at Central Florida, he has had one losing season and has turned the Knights into a consistent middle of the pack American team. I was very high on UCF last year given that they had all their roster back from a season ago. I had them pegged as a bubble team and team I thought would at least make the NIT. The Knights looked good in the non conference portion of the schedule when they beat Miami and Michigan. It was the conference slate that started giving them problems.

UCF was not a good offensive team last year; they didn’t shoot a high percentage from anywhere on the floor and that is what ultimately proved to be their downfall. The Knights didn’t play in the postseason at all. Coach Dawkins went and scoured the transfer portal and was able to get a nice haul of transfers to fill the voids. He got some shooters and a lot of the transfers have been at their other schools for a long time and have played a lot of minutes in the NCAA. UCF is still a middle of the pack American team.

Ithiel Horton transfers to the Knights after two seasons at both Pittsburgh and Delaware. Horton is a talented player who needs a change of scenery. He was suspended for the first 19 games of the season last year. When he came back, he was a starter and was hitting threes and picking up the scoring for the Panthers. The guard has a ton of experience and if he is bought in is a huge asset. Horton can get red hot from deep where he can carry a team.  He is never going to average 15 a game but his shooting ability, experience, and prowess on the defensive end of the floor will help UCF.

92. Wichita State Shockers- Last Season Ranking: 59

Conference: American Athletic

Head coach Issac Brown is doing big things for the Shockers, and he is trying to keep them consistent. Last year heading into the season Wichita State was the reigning American regular season champion and received an at large bid to the tournament. Wichita State didn’t live up to the hype last year and it all stems from the fact the team could not shoot the ball from deep or from the floor. It was very weird to see a Shockers team that struggled that badly on the offensive end.

Coach Brown flipped almost this entire roster and used the transfer portal to go and get experience and talent quickly. I may be in the minority, but I like this team a lot. Wichita State has an extremely high ceiling, but also a low floor. They should be able to finish in the middle of the American easily, which would put them in a firm bubble position. The ceiling for the Shockers is a top half finish in the league. The offense will improve, and the defense will be exactly what it always is. If the Shockers can score, they are going to be just fine.

Gus Okafor didn’t get the nickname cheese for no reason. Okafor is a transfer from Southeastern Louisiana and most people do not know about him. He is a stretch four who puts a ton of pressure on defenses because he is a legitimate three point threat. The forward is good around the rim and a great defensive player. He can play any position on the floor and guard every position on the floor. He is good at a little bit of everything. Hence the nickname cheese. It goes with everything.

91. Boise State Broncos- Last Season Ranking: 77

Conference: Mountain West

The Broncos won the Mountain West regular season and the tournament championship and finished the year in the top 25. That was a great season for the Boise State team who was a team that was kind of lying in the weeds so to speak. Head coach Leon Rice has always had a competitive team, but his team never performed well enough to get into the tournament consistently or win the league.

Last year, it all culminated in arguably the best season Boise State has ever had. The Broncos play a slow grind it out style they love to get physical and create havoc on defense. The Broncos never allowed the opponents to shoot threes and the shots they did get up from anywhere on the floor were rarely open shots.

The offense for the Broncos was not always pretty to watch but it was efficient, and they took good shots. Boise State had a lot of offensive players who could score from all over the floor. Boise State saw their 68% free throw shooting come back to haunt them in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. The Broncos were bad from the line, and it did cause them to lose some games last year they otherwise would have won. Boise State lost a lot of production from the NCAA tournament team a season ago, this year they are young and look like a middle of the pack Mountain West team.

Marcus Shaver Jr. was a huge piece for the Broncos and their run to the tournament last season. He returns as the team’s leading scorer, team leader, and best three point shooter. He is going to be the guy again for Boise State. The guard is a great defender and a capable scorer. He likely will find himself on all conference team again.